"Successful Chinese Emigrating to West in Droves"", an article by Wieland Wagner in Spiegel Online International (24 February, 2012) shows how "Despite their country's stunning economic growth, many successful Chinese entrepreneurs are emigrating to the West. For them, the Chinese government is too arbitrary and unpredictable, and they view their children's prospects as better in the West." Click here

The heart of the phenomenon is whether more and more sucessful Chinese people are in search of an American Dream or a Chinese Dream, and how are their rising aspirations can be met in a one-Party state.

It is instructive that many Chinese people who have become emigrants in the West seek their business opportunities in China (not just in emigration services) while some of the best and brightest in China seek to acquire Western citizenship.

As the article points out, it is an open secrete that some of the higest-ranking Chinese leaders have children attending top universities in the West. Even China's best universities do not come close in the same league.

It is obvious that a Western citizenship offers a good personal insurance policy. It is also obvious that the West may offer a higher quality of personal and family life, for those Chinese emigrants who can afford it. For some, even after acquiring their foreign citizenship, they may not even want to live abroad most of the time, let alone permanently, at least perhaps until they retire.

While many may well settle in their foreign adopted countries lock, stock and barrell, a larger number would maintain their strong presence in China. Indeed, for many, including some who already have settled in the West for a long time, China is now the Land of Opportunity.

Taking a worldview, some of those who have made it in China realize only too well that they really have to connect to the West if they want the best of both worlds.

On the other hand, what with the Arab Spring and the lessons of the Occupy Movement, the Chinese leadership realizes only too well that China has to address the aspirations of a rapidly rising and increasingly university-educated middle class. This cohort now accounts for less than a quarter of the nation's population, most of whom remain peasants and manual workers, but it is expected to reach 50% (nearly 700 million people) by 2025. The middle class is set to define China in the coming decades, both economically, socially and politically.

Looking at the faultines exposed in the Western model of democracy, it is even more unlikely that China would copy the Western model. China is known to have studied how a single party could retain its legitimacy for so long in countries like Singapore, Japan and Sweden.

While China has become more open and liberal to an almost unimaginable degree compared with merely a decade or so ago, the challenge remains of how to institute the checks and balance of democracy, against the corruption and abuse of an unchecked state, without necessarily adopting an adversarial, if not confrontational multi-party system.

In sum, such checks and balance are the supremacy of a national constitution, the separation of the executive, legislative and judicial powers, and fair and open election of government officials. It is not totally unimaingable that in the fullness of time, even a single Party, call it what you will, may be able to embrace these characteristics.

While from an ecological and sustainable point of view, it is increasingly questionable that the so-called American Dream of middle-class lifestyle can or should be replicated in China, a Chinese Dream of combining the best (and avoidng the worst) of both worlds remains elusive, at least for now. ("The Chinese Dream", by Helen C Wang, Best Seller Press, 2010).

China is at a crossroads of constant change. While unlikely to unveil dramatic about-turns in a cautious, unprecedented developmental trajectory, the upcoming Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and the National People's Congress (NPC) sessions, which are due to run from March 3 – 5, may offer a further glimpse of the country's direction against the backdrop of the new Five Year Plan (2011-15).

Meanwhile, the kind of "immigration by investment" agencies flourishing in China is likely to bring welcome funds to the West for at least some of the small-and-medium-sized enterprises and, more importantly, perhaps some of the best and brightest brains.
 
Best regards,

Andrew